Dental and medical handpieces become contaminated with micro-organisms during treatment, and when these handpieces are placed into their hangers this contamination is transmitted to the hangers. If this contamination is not prevented or eliminated, there is a danger of transmission to the next patient of organisms remaining on these hangers.
One method of addressing this problem is spraying and scrubbing with disinfectant and then waiting about 10 minutes for the disinfectant to take effect. There is no way to completely sterilize these hangers in the equipment in common use at present. Another method is to cover the hangers, either with a garment-type plastic bag over the instrument tray and all of the hangers, or to wrap clinging plastic film or aluminum foil over each hanger. Because of the time required, the lack of convenience and effectiveness of these present methods, there has been a need for some way to assure or at least minimize the transmission of infectious micro-organisms when placing and removing dental and medical handpieces on and from their hangers.
Other drapes known by me for covering dental or medical equipment are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,093,865, 1,342,968, 1,485,963, 1,539,253, 1,682,784, 3,528,720, 3,698,791 and my own U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,912. In these devices, tubular or sack-like envelopes of latex, hard paper or synthetic plastic films are used to slip over and enclose dental handpieces, operating microscopes and their appendages. All of these devices are not suitable for solving the problem of preventing transmission of infectious micro-organisms from instrument hangers.